01 Mar 2018

All Good Art is Political: Käthe Kollwitz and Sue Coe

Galerie St. Etienne

Reviewed by Harry Newman

Though specializing in German and Austrian art of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Galerie St. Etienne has always shown work for its contemporary resonance. This is especially true for "All Good Art Is Political," which features the art of German Expressionist master Käthe Kollwitz and British-American printmaker Sue Coe.

A hundred years separate the drawings, prints, paintings, and other work, yet together they demonstrate a continuity of political art and commitment over that time - as well as, regrettably, violence, poverty, and war, the recurring concern and subject for both artists. Though distant in time from one another, the exhibition shows their work to resonate. Coe borrows directly from Kollwitz's The Widow I (1922-23) for her woodcut Rescued (Safe at Last) (2016), and her images of police violence and homelessness echo of Kollwitz's depictions of hunger and war. The result is inspiring and affecting.